September 17, 2009

You always hear about how happy, excited, and relieved a player is to finally join a contender. These stories write themselves following an in-season trade. Well, Alex Rios hasn’t had much fun in Chicago. In 97 plate appearances he’s hitting .140/.156/.215 for the White Sox which translates into a .165 wOBA – or -13.2 wRAA. His simple batting figures aren’t the only out of place numbers since changing addresses: …

With Hawaii Winter Baseball no longer an option to send young Minor Leaguers this fall and a proposed “Junior Arizona Fall League” likely a year away, a group of farm directors took matters into their hands to provide a good development opportunity for their players. Eight teams with facilities located largely in the West Valley of Phoenix have come together to form an unofficial co-op league to give some of their players an additional chance to compete. It’s so informal, it doesn’t really have an accepted name, with some calling it the “Advanced Instructional League,” others calling it the “Arizona Parallel League.” … In general, here’s how it works. Games will take place in four complexes where instructional league play was already occurring: Surprise, Peoria and the two new facilities in Glendale and Goodyear. In each case, two teams share the complex and will feed players into a shared team. In Surprise, the Royals and Rangers are partners; in Peoria, it’s the Padres and Mariners; Cincinnati and Cleveland share the Goodyear team, with the Dodgers and White Sox over in Glendale. Each organization will provide 10 players each to the roster, which can be fluid and will likely change frequently. …

The inflammation in Gavin Floyd’s left hip is bad enough to cost him at least one start, as the White Sox officially ruled him out of Monday’s game before their finale with Seattle on Thursday. By next week, he could be shut down for the entire season, and he won’t be alone. Manager Ozzie Guillen said that if the team continued to bury itself in the standings that they would also likely shut Mark Buehrle down for the remainder of the year. …

September 16, 2009

The White Sox will actively look to trade Josh Fields this offseason. That comes as no secret since both sides have agreed that the former first-round pick would probably be better off somewhere else when the 2009 regular-season closes. … Fields said he and general manager Ken Williams did have a talk right before he was sent down in midseason, and “everything has been discussed and everything has been laid out on the table from both sides. He knows where I’m coming from and he gave me the position of the White Sox. As far as I can see, everything stands the exact same.” The Sox just won’t just give Fields away, but expect them to try and kick down every door to get him relocated.

Ozzie annual ‘We’ll bunt and run more in the next this spring training’ speech:

“Spring training is going to be a little better because we know what we have, and know what we have to work on every day to play the way we want to play. We cannot continue to miss signs. We cannot continue to try and hit-and-run and hit a foul ball. We cannot continue to miss bunts. Little by little we’ve started getting better and better, but that’s going to be our main thing in spring training – make sure we do the little things right day in and day out. If we do that we won’t go into slumps like we do this year. We’re not going to be in a slump because someone will do something to break it up. We won’t have to wait for the big boys to wake up all season long. You learn from it, and hopefully we continue to improve. There’s going to be more bunting. There’s going to be one station just hit-and-run. Game situation, just one for that, and then we’ll hit. Because we’re going to need it next year. This year was pretty bad. We may have a section for whoever is coaching third base, or Coxsy [Jeff Cox], you just stay with him for a half hour because I think we missed so many signs this year, it was unbelievable.”

The Chicago White Sox requested waivers on right-hander Bartolo Colon on Wednesday for the purposes of giving him his unconditional release. The announcement was made Wednesday afternoon prior to the club’s game in Seattle. Colon, 36, was 3-6 with a 4.19 ERA in 12 starts for the White Sox this season, but had been on the disabled list since July 28 with right elbow inflammation.

Justin Smoak: Smoak was the 11th overall pick in the draft, from the University of South Carolina. I thought this was a great bargain for the Rangers; I loved his bat and had him ranked ahead of all college hitters except Alvarez and Buster Posey before the draft. He got off to a great start at Double-A Frisco, hitting .328/.449/.481 with 39 walks and just 35 strikeouts in 183 at-bats. However, he strained an oblique muscle in June, and while he came back quickly he wasn’t the same afterward. The Rangers promoted him aggressively to Triple-A Oklahoma City where he hit .244/.363/.360 in 54 games, continuing to show good plate discipline but lacking power. Overall he hit .290/.410/.443 with 12 homers, 75 walks, and 81 strikeouts in 386 at-bats. I still like Smoak a lot, and suspect that the oblique hampered his performance much of the summer. He retained command of the strike zone even when struggling. However, hopes that he would be ready in 2010 have to be tempered; he’ll need more Triple-A time.

When assessing the health of a starter, there are a few key indicators to watch for. One, of course, is velocity. When a player is hiding an injury or has lingering effects from surgery or a previous DL stint, they often see a reduction in velocity. Fortunately for Garcia, his velocity is right where he left it in 2006, his last full season in the majors. While this is a good sign that he has recovered well from his latest shoulder escapade, this does not mean that he is back to form from his days in Seattle. In the early 2000s, when Garcia was at the best of his career, he was sitting in the 91 mph range (with a season at 93 mph in 2002). His arm has not been the same since 2006, when dropped 2 mph on his fastball from 91.4 in ’05 to 89.3 mph in ’06. The Garcia of 2009 sits at 88.5 mph. While not the Garcia of old, a 0.8 mph drop in velocity is not much to be concerned about, considering all his arm has been through.

The second, and often, more important, indicator is his command ratios. Even if a pitcher has a decrease in velocity, hitters will not be able to slug his stuff until he starts leaving it over the plate or getting into lots of hitter’s counts… and then there’s the walks. Even with diminished velocity, should Garcia be able to control the strike zone and keep his walk totals down, he should be a relatively effective pitcher. Luckily for him, he has been able to do so, as his 2.83 BB/9 and 56.3 first-strike percentage are right in line with his career averages. …

September 15, 2009

Kevin Goldstein looks at those minor leaguers who saw their stock jump the most:

Chicago White Sox: The breakout pitcher of the year, right-hander Dan Hudson went from a non-descript fifth-round pick in 2008 to a big-leaguer, pitching at all four full-season affiliates while finishing with a 2.32 ERA and a remarkable 166/34 strikeout/walk ratio in 147 1/3 innings. All of the scouting evidence indicates that this breakout’s for real.

Runner-Up: An undrafted free agent out of Arizona, all C.J. Retherford has done is hit at every level. That continued at Double-A, as the second baseman hit .297/.340/.473 in 128 games for the Barons, including 46 doubles.

Some sort of pitch count or innings limit will be placed on Peavy, who has gotten up and down for the equivalent of four innings in his simulated side sessions. Peavy also has to channel his emotion and adrenaline during what amounts to being an Opening Day type of start.

Dayan Viciedo – If I were Viciedo’s hitting coach, he would drive me absolutely nuts. From my seat down the third base line, he finished every swing looking in my direction which left me feeling a bit self conscious. When he made contact, the ball exploded off of his bat, but he only made solid contact with two strikes. His bat speed is elite, but his mechanics are messy. He should adapt his two strike approach to be his every pitch approach which would not only shorten his swing, but help take advantage of his tremendous bat speed. At third base, he was iffy at best. His arm was solid average, but he didn’t move well laterally and his hands were just so so. With his size, I’m not sure he’s a great fit in left field or at first base either.

”Oh, Adrian Peterson is on … come on A.P.,” Beckham yelled out to no one in particular. After seeing Peterson get stuffed at the line on the first drive, he was already willing to trade the running back from his fantasy team.

Luckily he has a co-owner. The Yin to his Yang. The other rookie with a big future. ”Nice patience,” Chris Getz calmly said to Beckham, sounding more big brotherly than teammate.

Ten minutes later, Peterson had the first of his three touchdowns on the day. Beckham was still walking around the clubhouse hours before the Sunday game, the usual ball of energy that he is. Getz? He was taking a nap in a chair. …